"Partnerships is not a slogan for Miki Schmidt, it is a way of life," said MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello when announcing the award. "He has been a great advocate for the utilization of the products and service provided by the private sector to achieve mission success in government programs."

Schmidt was selected for the award by the MAPPS Board of Directors, which was bestowed on January 27, 2011 at the MAPPS Winter Conference.

Mr. Schmidt was recognized for forging public-private partnerships, and inter-agency and inter-governmental arrangements to carry out NOAA projects that promote economic development and environmental balance in America's coastal communities.

"The program Miki leads is a 'best practices' model for how collaboration among government entities, contracting with the private sector for commercially available services, and the employment of qualifications in the delivery of solutions results in geospatial applications that NOAA, other Federal agencies, and state and local coastal resource management organizations implement to address complex coastal issues," Palatiello said.

The Public Service Award was established by the MAPPS Board of Directors to recognize and honor employees in public service positions who have made extraordinary contributions to the public and the geospatial profession in their government service roles.

Schmidt has had a long career with the Federal government. From 1988 to 1991, he served as a civilian remote sensing scientist for the U.S. Army's Strategic Defense Command. He later joined NASA's commercial remote sensing program, working with private firms to develop new remote sensing products and services. He joined the NOAA Coastal Services Center in 1996. He previously worked in private practice.

Schmidt is only the third recipient of the MAPPS award. The award was first presented to Moody K. "M.K." Miles, III, Deputy Chief Engineering and Construction, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in June 2007 and most recently to Major L. Clark III, Assistant Chief Counsel for Procurement, Office of Advocacy, Small Business Administration (SBA) in November 2010.

About MAPPSFormed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. The MAPPS membership spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. Independent Consultant Members are sole proprietors engaged in consulting in or to the geospatial profession, or provides a consulting service of interest to the geospatial profession.

MAPPS provides its 180+ member firms opportunities for networking and developing business-to-business relationships, information sharing, education, public policy advocacy, market growth, and professional development and image enhancement.